


All Hours

by OhThatsViolet



Category: Apex Legends (Video Games)
Genre: Basically they don't really like each other but they're slowly getting over it, Bond building, Comfort, Fear, Gen, Kinda, Miroctane mentioned, Nightmares, Reminiscing, Rivalry, Spiders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-12 01:47:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29377326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OhThatsViolet/pseuds/OhThatsViolet
Summary: Elliott is woken up from his nightmare by someone unexpected - Crypto
Relationships: Crypto | Park Tae Joon & Mirage | Elliott Witt
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	All Hours

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Twitter & Tumblr: ohthatsviolet

It was so dark he couldn't see them but he could hear them and that unnerved him more. He could hear their scurrying across the bare floor. Damn spiders. It was Caustic's fault; he'd brought them here and now Elliott was trapped in the dark in one of Water Treatment's smaller rooms with these creepy little bastards running around his ankles. Why were they so big? _How_ were they so big? He could feel their pointed legs digging into his shins through his clothes. As long as they didn't touch his skin he'd be okay. All he had to do was breathe and wait for them to go away. They'd leave eventually, right? He shuffled his boots around, his natural instinct to kick them away and run was beginning to sink in. But no matter how much he wanted to, he couldn't actually move. His head fell back against the chilling surface of the wall behind him and he shut his eyes tightly. All he had to do was breathe. In through his nose. Hold. Breathe out. _Slowly_. He began to open his eyes timidly, once he felt calm and brave enough. Everything inside of him was telling him to stay still and calm but he could still hear that awful scurrying; but this time it sounded a lot closer than before. His head began to turn involuntarily and he really wished he could have stopped it. He couldn't contain the whimper of fear that broke through his lips when his dilated honey eyes met a pair of acidic green, glowing ones, staring at him from their perch on the wall, right next to his face. They acted before he had the chance to, their front legs making contact with his cheek as they began to climb over him. He shook his head in protest, his hands pinned to his sides by an invisible force he couldn't fight.  
"No, no, no! Get off!"   
He almost screamed when he felt a harsh grip pierce into his shoulders. They were going to pin him down and hold him here to continue this torture - he knew they were.  
"Let me go!"   
"Get up, Witt. You're dreaming."   
He continued to shake and squirm but it felt like he was not the one controlling his movements anymore.   
"Get off me!"   
"Wake up. I'm trying to help you. Idiot." 

* * *

Elliott came back to reality with a jump, barely taking the time to take in his surroundings before backing away from his attacker, holding himself like their touch had just scalded him. It took his eyes a moment to focus under the bright lights, his hands settling on the worn fabric of the sofa underneath him. His eyes scanned around the common area of the dropship inquisitively until his memories came flooding back to him and he realised he'd must have crashed here without meaning to. His gaze eventually settled on the figure lingering over him.   
"Cryp-Crypto?" he asked, genuinely surprised to see him. "What are you doing here?"   
"I could ask you the same question. It's late."   
Elliott furrowed his eyebrows at that. He hated the way he always spoke to him with that matter-of-fact tone, like he thought he knew better than him. He spoke like that to everyone, but Elliott felt like he was the only one who ever took it personally. Elliott had never liked Crypto. He’d tried to get along with him when he first joined the games but the only thing he had to show for it was a heavily bruised ego. He’d figured the hacker would be an easy target for a joke but he’d been wrong and he’d never quite gotten over the amount of times Crypto had effortlessly humiliated him in return. Elliott would laugh it off for the cameras but the real impact of their exchanges was something that was only discussed between himself and his therapist that he wasn’t very good at opening up to. Maybe if he tried harder he’d also stop having these dreams.   
Hmm...much to think about. 

“Here.”   
Elliott startled again, only now realising he’d completely zoned out. He looked at the glass of water that was being offered to him and back to Crypto, raising his eyebrow before taking it. The tension between them was impenetrable while he sipped at his drink and the hacker perched himself on the arm of a nearby chair. Elliott tried to avert his eyes but it was difficult to keep up since Crypto kept his own eyes fixed on him the whole time. Elliott found the entire thing very unsettling.   
“Dude, can you stop staring at me?” he eventually snapped. “I sign autographs after games on Thursdays if you’re a fan.”  
“Do you have nightmares a lot?”  
The trickster bristled at the question. It caught him completely off guard. He didn’t like questions like this at the best of times but the combination of who was asking and the fact that the lack of decent sleep was making him a lot grumpier than usual was causing him to take more offense.   
“Do _you?_ ” he eventually said, deciding to return the question rather than answer it.   
Crypto just shrugged and looked down at his hands where he seemed to be fidgeting with a magnet of some sort.   
“Can’t dream if you don’t sleep.”   
“Is that why you’re up wandering around at all hours of the night?”   
Crypto shrugged again.   
“I guess. Though, all of Octavio’s yelling doesn’t help.”  
“I don’t know where he gets the energy from for all those late night streams,” Elliott sighed heavily, running a hand through his hair.   
“Consider yourself lucky that I was here,” Crypto continued. “All your whining would have woken the entire ship eventually with your big mouth.” 

He watched and waited for Elliott to give him some sort of response but it never came. Crypto never really knew how to feel about Elliott. In another life maybe they could have been friends. He was funny sometimes and most of the other Legends seemed to have a soft spot for him which, as far as he could tell, was reciprocated by the trickster himself. Crypto didn’t know why they didn’t get along. He didn’t hate him by any means. Elliott just always seemed to have some sort of chip on his shoulder all the time and he wasn’t sure why. He'd never been invited to any of Elliott's post-game drink sessions or parties. Not that he wanted to go anyway. Still, he’d not-so-casually asked Octavio about it once. They were friendly enough but their interactions always felt somewhat awkward due to Octavio’s relationship with Elliott. Crypto pushed the thought to the back of his mind for now, deciding to focus his attention on the man sitting across from him instead. Elliott still hadn’t given him a response, opting to chew on his nails instead. He was starting to feel bad about his earlier remark; even he could see there was something deeply troubling his fellow Legend. 

“What are you afraid of?”   
“Huh?”   
Crypto bit down on his lip now that he had the trickster’s attention. He’d asked the question before he’d even realised it and now it felt like he had no option but to roll with it.   
“You...your nightmare. Dream. What was it about?”  
He was surprised when Elliott began to laugh, despite it not sounding very humorous.   
“Like I’m gonna tell you. You’d probably...hack it into some...news site or something so everyone can make fun of me. Or...whatever it is that you do.”   
“Right,” Crypto sighed heavily, his gaze casting down to his hands once again.   
He hadn’t expected Elliott to answer his question and wasn’t even sure why he had asked. He was about to stand up, make the coffee he’d originally come out here for and return to his room, until the trickster spoke up.   
“Spiders...It’s...I’m scared of spiders,” he said, drawing his knees up and into his chest. “That’s...what I was dreaming about.”  
“You’re scared of spiders?”  
Elliott was preparing himself to go on the defensive until he realised the hacker wasn’t laughing at him and merely seemed genuinely curious and relaxed slightly.   
“Y-yeah,” he began to explain, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. “Just...had a bad experience.”  
Crypto nodded stoically.   
“I was bitten by a spider once. My mo-...er...someone I know...used to know. They had a garden and one of the trees there always attracted these giant spiders. I don't know why she...they kept it.”  
“Gross,” Elliott replied, a shudder racing down his spine. “And...it just...b-bit you?”  
“Yeah. And I freaked out because my sister told me it was venomous,” Crypto continued with an almost-fond smile that Elliott doesn’t think he’s ever seen before.   
“Did it...kill you?”  
Crypto looked towards his companion who seemed actually engaged in his story. He figured the ridiculous question must have been down to how tired he looked. He looked like he was struggling to keep his eyes open, so he decided to give him the benefit of the doubt; for now. He wondered what Mystik would think if she knew he was having this conversation with her favourite Legend right now.   
“No...it didn’t. She was just...fooling me.”  
“My brothers used to prank me like that all the time,” Elliott said, with a chuckle. “Not with...spiders though. There was this one time, they...erm…”

He paused and looked up, momentarily meeting the hacker’s eyes before dropping his gaze and moving to stand.   
“I uh...think I’m gonna...go to bed now. And try and drag Tav off his stream.”  
“Alright. Yeah, good luck with that,” Crypto replied, causing them both to chuckle.   
Elliott lingered for a moment, then turned on his heel and began walking away. The hacker nodded slowly to himself and began to stand also, with the intention of finally making his way to the kitchen, pausing when the trickster stopped to speak to him again  
“Hey, uh...thanks for...y’know,” Elliott mumbled, awkwardly toying with the cuff of his sleeve before finding some composure to continue. “And maybe lay off the caffeine, alright? I know where you’re headed.”  
“Maybe you should tell that to your boyfriend,” Crypto quipped in response, noticing how the corner of the trickster’s lip curled into a slight smirk.   
“I’ll keep that in mind.”  
“Goodnight...Elliott.”  
“Yeah, uh...Night. Don’t let the prowlers bite...or whatever,” Elliott said, turning away and waving him off as he made his way towards Octavio’s room. “Ya geriatric.” 


End file.
